Nicolas Kemper

I think framing it as a budget saving measure suggests cheaper which suggests worst, when the main advantage is that single stair reform means you can actually build much higher quality housing. So something like...

To build better housing, some states are doing away with superfluous hallways.

Framing it as cost-cutting suggests that having more stairs = higher quality, which is just not true.

Yeah, that's a really unfortunate framing.

I would also take issue with the use of the phrase 'cut costs' - I have always understood single stair to be primarily about improving the quality of multi-family housing, not as an exercise in cost-cutting which evokes corner-cutting.

I will check with him, but I think it was indeed the standpipe that was the real kicker.

He wanted to include a bunch of small shops at the base of a line of townhouses he was building, and could not make the numbers work.

Got some insight about this from a developer recently: apparently there are certain code requirements that apply formidable fixed costs to all retail, no matter how large, so the more square feet, the smaller those costs become per square foot.

A BETTER BILLION, AMA: This is the latest report from the Transit Costs Project. It sought to take all the work we've done on subway construction and push it forward into a vision of what could/should be possible in NYC with a steady source of funding -- transitcosts.com/a-better-bil...

Taller Towers, Fewer Homes (Published 2022)

Possibly a dynamic unique to the upper east side, but what about when they tear down affordable units to build fewer high-end units?

www.nytimes.com/2022/09/23/r...

I reviewed the office of Harper’s magazine -

I mean, pretty bad, but if the prompt is bleak courtyard...

Sounds like a joke but I actually wrote this www.alexandralange.net/articles/83/...

Want a Masterclass in How Not to Work With Artists? Ask Google | Artnet News Renown artist Judy Chicago shares her misadventures with an ambitious public art commission for the tech giant.

Google commissioned Judy Chicago to create a large scale work of art for the (former) James R. Thompson Center. Yet Chicago was unable to acquire accurate architectural drawings of the interior from the team, experienced long delays in communication, and was told that her colors were "too bright."

I just really like that color scheme.

At the Harper’s office, each intern is given a cardinal direction, reflected in their email address (i.e., north@harper.org) and then a desk that is—for reasons nobody could explain—oriented opposite their direction.

@nyreviewofarch.bsky.social

nyra.nyc/articles/666...

I visited the office of @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social and fell hard for the courtyard.

Excerpt reads: "Prioritize your neighborhood Neighborhoods drive our happiness (or unhappiness) more than we think. When Lina Martinez, director of POLIS, the Center for Wellbeing Studies at Universidad Icesi in Colombia, studied the happiness of households in the city of Cali, she couldn’t find much difference between poorer and richer areas. “Their happiness is pretty much the same,” she said. But that changed when she isolated neighborhood conditions, such as access to transit, health care and parks. “The conditions of the neighborhood affect happiness,” she said. “I can’t link that to the space where [people] live.” That aligns with findings from a 2023 study of the Vancouver metro area: Researchers found no significant differences in well-being between people living in single detached homes, duplexes, townhouses, laneway houses and apartment buildings (basement units smaller than 300 square feet were the only negative exception). What did people say they missed most in their neighborhood? Affordability, proximity to family and friends, and a sense of community. Home design was eighth on the list."

A Washington Post article suggests that, beyond a certain threshold, larger homes don't make people happier. Instead, well-being is correlated with affordable housing in walkable neighborhoods where they feel socially connected.

www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

Rumours of Our Death Print Ain’t Dead, Baby

Our symposium on the print magazine in the 21st century features Graydon Carter, Ian Hislop, Jo Ellison and more, and is perhaps the boldest thing we've ever run: do have a read here.

www.the-fence.com/rumours-of-o...

As a lifelong observer of Epiphany, reflecting today that it is unfortunate that Epiphany will always be on January 6.

i'm burdened with a good memory for things that don't matter, so it hasn't escaped my notice how many people who participated in the idiotic k*te w*gner pile-on last month are currently opining as if they are without sin.

imagine if our planning provided for density that was both quiet, and dark sky compliant

it's not hard. and it's a massive improvement of our status quo.

Hey, all - NYRA is a great way to spend approx $25/year. Their Los Angeles Review of Architecture issues are top-tier, as well.

We’re getting back to work and decided to extend our end-of-year sale: Start a new subscription and receive all of our issues this year for just $25.

Still on the fence? Here are a few replies to our 2025 reader survey that may win you over.

Offer good until Tuesday:

nyra.nyc/subscribe/2025

my first boss as a planner turned me into a dark sky fanatic. lighting is probably one of those things that seems annoying and excessive in zoning codes but it's so important. yimby as long as it's darksky approved cut off fixtures

yooooooooooooooo

Statistically, you're likely to have already come across our top read essays of 2025, but just in case you haven't....

Sat on that book for about ten years after a friend recommended it, when I finally started could not stop, hit me like a pile of bricks.

I wrote about Trump’s ballroom and the right’s quest to remake the symbolic order for @nyreviewofarch.bsky.social nyra.nyc/articles/wre...

Seems like they could have baked PSDs into the new second avenue subway, so would have been fully integrated with the design and buildout of the system.

Is that on the table for the extension?

Just a friendly reminder that if you would like to purchase a tote, poster, or issue of our much coveted magazine and have a fighting chance that it arrives in time for the holiday, you would need to do that now:

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A week after his death, LA's elected officials keep putting out statements praising Frank Gehry's genius while refusing to implement his vision